In manufacturing products from sheet material, it is necessary to process the sheet after it is formed. Sheet materials include, for example, paper webs, webs of synthetic fibers and nonwoven webs, as well as polymer sheets such as plastics and elastomers. For webs made of fibrous material, the web must be transferred from the machine used to form the web to a machine which will process the web into a more useful product. The processing machine is frequently a winding reel, but may also be, for example, an apparatus for segmenting the web into portions, for treating the web with additives, for folding or stitching the web, or for bonding the web to another substance.
While the sheet formation is usually a continuous process, the processing of the sheet may or may not be continuous. The processing may be a batch process having a distinct beginning and ending. The processing may be designed as a continuous process, but may be subject to more frequent interruptions than the sheet formation. In the case of winding webs of fibrous material, an initial edge of the web may be attached to a core or mandrel, after which the web can be wound around this initial edge. Once the winding has produced a roll of the desired size, the roll must be separated from the web issuing from the sheet former. A new initial edge from the sheet can then be used to begin a new roll once the edge is threaded to the winder.
The separation of the web can be performed manually by a user impacting the sheet as it passes between the forming machine and the processing machine. The initial edge formed can be fed to another processor, or another initial edge may be formed by impacting or slicing the sheet again. Manual breaking and threading is especially difficult for fibrous webs which are heavy and strong and which have large widths, nor are they useful at high sustained operating speeds.
For sheets of fibrous web material, conventional threading procedures involve the adjustment of the size of the web as it is formed. A more narrow portion of the sheet is formed to function as a leader. This leader is easier to handle than a full-width sheet and can be threaded to the processing machine. The width of the sheet is then expanded to full size by adjusting the formation process. This adds undesirable complexity to the process, as both the processing machine and the forming machine must be adjusted, increasing the likelihood of operator error and machine malfunction.
It is thus desirable to provide an apparatus that will separate a formed sheet from a processed sheet, create a new edge from the formed sheet, and feed the new edge to a processing apparatus. It would be especially useful if this apparatus could function automatically, with minimal involvement by the operator, and if the apparatus could dispense any waste material into a desired area.